A Restored College Football System
The goal of this system is to restore regional identity, meaningful regular seasons, traditional rivalries, prestigious bowls, and a coherent national championship structure.
Instead of endless expansion and disconnected conferences, college football is reorganized into four large regional superconferences plus a lower “Shadow League” with promotion and relegation.
1. The Four Major Conferences
Big Ten/20 — Great Lakes & Northeast Football
The Big Ten/20 becomes the northern and industrial football conference built around the Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, and old eastern independents.
Members:
- Ohio State Buckeyes football
- Michigan Wolverines football
- Michigan State Spartans football
- Penn State Nittany Lions football
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Purdue Boilermakers football
- Indiana Hoosiers football
- Illinois Fighting Illini football
- Northwestern Wildcats football
- Wisconsin Badgers football
- Minnesota Golden Gophers football
- Iowa Hawkeyes football
- Pittsburgh Panthers football
- Syracuse Orange football
- Boston College Eagles football
- Rutgers Scarlet Knights football
- Maryland Terrapins football
- Virginia Cavaliers football
- Virginia Tech Hokies football
- West Virginia Mountaineers football
Notre Dame remains nationally distinctive while participating fully in conference football. They preserve annual non-conference games against USC and Navy. And rotate additional games among Stanford, Miami, and Army.
SEC/20 — Deep South & Atlantic South Football
The SEC/20 becomes the premier southeastern football conference.
Members:
- Alabama Crimson Tide football
- Auburn Tigers football
- Georgia Bulldogs football
- Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football
- Florida Gators football
- Florida State Seminoles football
- Miami Hurricanes football
- LSU Tigers football
- Ole Miss Rebels football
- Mississippi State Bulldogs football
- Tennessee Volunteers football
- Vanderbilt Commodores football
- Kentucky Wildcats football
- Louisville Cardinals football
- Clemson Tigers football
- South Carolina Gamecocks football
- North Carolina Tar Heels football
- NC State Wolfpack football
- Duke Blue Devils football
- Wake Forest Demon Deacons football
This reunifies the old southeastern and Carolina football worlds.
Pac-15 — West Coast & Mountain Football
The Pac-15 restores western football identity.
Members:
- Washington Huskies football
- Washington State Cougars football
- Oregon Ducks football
- Oregon State Beavers football
- California Golden Bears football
- Stanford Cardinal football
- USC Trojans football
- UCLA Bruins football
- Arizona Wildcats football
- Arizona State Sun Devils football
- Utah Utes football
- BYU Cougars football
- Colorado Buffaloes football
- Boise State Broncos football
- UNLV Rebels football
Colorado joins the western conference footprint while preserving its rivalry with Nebraska.
Big 15 — Plains & Southwest Football
The Big 15 restores the old Big Eight / Southwest identity.
Members:
- Nebraska Cornhuskers football
- Iowa State Cyclones football
- Kansas Jayhawks football
- Kansas State Wildcats football
- Oklahoma Sooners football
- Oklahoma State Cowboys football
- Arkansas Razorbacks football
- Texas Longhorns football
- Texas A&M Aggies football
- Texas Tech Red Raiders football
- Baylor Bears football
- TCU Horned Frogs football
- Houston Cougars football
- SMU Mustangs football
- Missouri Tigers football
This restores Texas rivalries, old Southwest football culture, and classic Big 12 football geography.
2. Scheduling Structure
Weeks 1–3 — Nonconference Season
The season begins with three weeks of non-conference football. This preserves all non-conference rivalries, Power League/Shadow League rivalries, and cross-conference exposure games. Because overall record matters for standings and bowl eligibility, teams cannot ignore these games or rest starters casually.
Weeks 4–12 — Conference Season
Conference play dominates the middle of the season. Because conferences are geographically coherent again, most major rivalries become conference games naturally. Only a few protected non-conference rivalries would be played outside of the first three weeks of the year, including Colorado–Nebraska or Notre Dame–USC. These teams would still play nine conference opponents and three non-conference opponents.
3. Conference Championship Structure
Each conference sends four teams to a conference playoff. Conference standings are determined by:
- Conference record
- Head-to-head
- Overall record
- Record vs common opponents
- Strength of schedule
Week 13 — Conference Semifinals
The top four teams qualify.
Games are played on campus:
- #1 hosts #4
- #2 hosts #3
This ensures home-field advantage, cold-weather playoff atmospheres (where applicable), and meaningful regular season positioning.
Week 14 — Conference Championship Games
The semifinal winners advance to a neutral-site conference championship game.
Examples:
- Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis or Chicago
- SEC Championship in Atlanta or New Orleans
- Pac-15 Championship in Las Vegas
- Big 15 Championship in Dallas or Kansas City
Conference championships become true major events again.
4. The National Championship Structure
The postseason restores the traditional bowl system while still producing a true national champion.
The Rose Bowl
Every year Pac-15 Champion vs Big Ten/20 Champion at the Rose Bowl. The traditional Granddaddy of Them All is permanently restored.
The Sugar Bowl
Every year Big 15 Champion vs SEC/20 Champion at the Sugar Bowl. This restores the old southern/southwestern bowl structure.
National Championship Game
The winners of the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl advance to the national championship game approximately 1–2 weeks later. The title game is not a bowl, played at a neutral NFL stadium, and treated as its own singular national championship event.
Possible sites:
- Arlington
- Atlanta
- Indianapolis
- Miami
- Los Angeles
- Phoenix
This preserves bowl tradition while still crowning a definitive champion.
5. Bowl System
The total number of bowls is reduced to 18 bowls (36 teams). This restores scarcity and prestige.
Tier 1 — New Year’s Six
The premier bowls:
- Rose Bowl
- Sugar Bowl
- Orange Bowl
- Cotton Bowl
- Fiesta Bowl
- Peach Bowl
The Rose and Sugar Bowls function as national semifinals. The remaining New Year’s Six bowls host elite non-playoff matchups.
Tier 2 — Mid-Level Traditional Bowls
Examples:
- Holiday Bowl
- Sun Bowl
- Citrus Bowl
- Liberty Bowl
These reward strong seasons and preserve regional traditions.
Tier 3 — Lower-Tier Bowls
Only six lower-tier bowls remain. Bowl eligibility matters again.
6. Bowl Eligibility
Only teams finishing in the top half of their conference are bowl eligible.
Allocation:
- Big Ten/20 → 9 teams
- SEC/20 → 9 teams
- Pac-15 → 7 teams
- Big 15 → 7 teams
Plus 4 Shadow League conference champions.
Total 36 bowl teams.
Eligibility is based on OVERALL record, not just conference record. This ensures non-conference games remain meaningful all season.
7. Promotion & Relegation
The Shadow League contains the remaining FBS schools organized into regional conferences.
Top Shadow League teams can earn bowl bids, compete for promotion, and move upward over time.
Poorly performing major-conference teams can eventually face relegation. The lowest ranking team from each Power League conference must host a relegation game against the conference-champ from the corresponding Shadow League conference. This restores accountability and long-term competitive integrity.
8. The Goal of the Entire System
The system combines traditional regional college football, preserved rivalries, meaningful bowls, transparent qualification, and a clean modern postseason. The sport becomes more regional, more understandable, more difficult, more emotionally meaningful, and more connected to its historical roots.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that in the 15-team conferences (PAC-15 and Big-15), each team has four partners it plays annually. Everyone else is played every two years.
In the 20-team conferences (SEC-20 and BIGTEN/20), each team has four partners it plays annually, plus five more that it plays every two years. All other teams are played every four years.